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September 1929
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
“Nobody’s.” “Oh.” There was a pause. “Have you anybody to recommend you ? When boys come here we sometimes have preachers or friends recommend them. Have you anybody to speak for you?” “No, there isn’t anybody that will say anything for me.” After waiting a moment, he stepped forward quickly, waved his arm and said, as if by sudden inspiration : “If these here rags won’t recommend me to your home, nothing will!” If you come in rags, with your shame and sin, God’s great pent-up love will flow out to you like an ocean. And He will receive you. A n H onest H eart The men who came to David were sincere. He said to them: “I f ye come to me peaceably to help me, then my heart will be knit to you. But if ye come to betray me to mine enemies, then the God o f our fathers will avenge me.” It matters not how low a man or woman may be, if underneath the degradation and the sin there is an honest heart and a sincere desire to trust and follow Jesus Christ, He will lift that one and make a king or a priest of him as David did his poor men. Jesus tells us in one of His parables that the seed of the Word must have an honest heart. You may have no reputation, like these people and others we might mention from the gospels: Mary Magda lene, out of whom He cast seven demons; the thief on the cross, whose feet were in the very flames of hell. But they were sincere. They looked to Jesus and the transforma tion took place. “But if ye come to betray me, then will God avenge me,” David said. There was no spike driven into Christ’s flesh by a Roman soldier, no thorn among those that pressed His brow, that hurt Him so much as the betrayal of one of His own. I think David was speaking of that in prophecy when he said, “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat o f my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” There are some who come to us professing to be friends while they are in reality angling for bait, some thing they can use against us. May the God of our fa thers avenge His children who suffer at the hands of such. There was a Judas among the Twelve. There was an Ananias in the early church. Paul suffered much at the hands of one Alexander, a coppersmith, and Demas, who forsook him for the love of the world. In his day every flock of sheep had some goats in it. But in the churches today we have not only goats, but sometimes wolves. We are told that as we near the end of the age, wolves in sheep’s clothing will infest the flock. These sincere men said, “David, we have come to thee peaceably. Thine we are, and thine we will be.” Read their history and you will see that there was no sacrifice too great to make for the king whom they so loved. T he C ourage , of F a ith They were brave men. They could handle both the shield and the buckler. There is a thrilling story of how they reached David. When they came to the Jordan it was flood-tide. They found an army of foes on the east bank and another on the west. But, nothing daunted, they brushed their enemies aside, forded the river, and went to David through foe and flood. My friend, let me say this: To follow Jesus Christ requires more than abstract faith. It calls for courage. The trouble with most Christians today is that they have no backbone. They are negatives. The world makes an
All Mine! All His! B y G eorge H all
All mine: what wondrous truth is this That God could give Himself to me; Not what He hath, alone, but what He IS, For He and I are one eternally. All mine: the mysteries of God, And in this trysting place so sweet . He woos my heart, and captivates my soul, And heaven and earth kiss at His nail-scarred feet. All His: how bless’d it is to know That in reciprocation sweet, All that I have and am, I humbly pour With sweet abandon at His blessed feet. All His: there are no limits to His love; The length, the breadth, the depth, the height: And He — ah! He will lead me safely there Till, robed in depths of everlasting light, I cry—A L L H IS ! when you have a friend who understands, who feels, who makes your sorrow His sorrow. And Jesus does! O utside T he C amp In the cave Adullam, David, during the time of his rejection, received the weary, the sad, and the sinful. Even so Christ, that He might save the people, suffered outside the city, and He calls: " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn o f Me; for I am meek and lozvly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and M y burden is light.” Let us, there fore, go unto Him, without the camp, bearing His re proach. God’s provisions for humanity are always for the needy. The Bible has nothing to offer to the self-satisfied, to the self-righteous, to the self-sufficient. If you are good enough, you are outside the pale of God’s provision and promise. He has sight for the blind. He has bread for the hungry. He has life for the dead. “ I have not come,” He declares, “to call the righteous, but sinners to repen tance.” Furthermore, “the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. The Son of man is come to seek and save that which is lost.” I was reading a story some time ago in connection with the work of Dr. Barnardo, that truly great man who took the place of a father to so many stray boys in London. During fifty years of ministry he gathered together eighty thousand neglected children and made it possible for them to become Christian men and women, if they so desired. On one occasion the doctor and a friend stood in front of one of the great Barnardo homes. Up came a little boy, just a few rags hanging on him. Timidly he looked into the great man’s face and asked, “Are you Dr. Barnardo?” “Yes,” came the reply. “Well, could you take a fellow in, give him a home and something to eat and wear?” “Whose boy are you ?”
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